Ask Peter Cronan a question and you know he's kicking back a straight answer, no pussyfooting. Time's too precious.So, what's Cronan's take on a federal board ruling that the Washington Redskins must pick another name because it's offensive to some people? The US Patent and Trademark Office ruled that the team's trademark protections for the name -- Redskins -- go the way of leather helmets because it's insulting to some Native Americans, as well as many non-Native Americans.The target is Redskins' owner Daniel Snyder. Without exclusive rights to the Redskins trademark, the feds hope Snyder will wilt and choose a new name for his team."We run into this all the time," said Cronan. "It's politics. Most people don't see (the Redskins name) as a bad thing, so why not just drop it? It's a mundane dispute."Religious and political voices, and even sports leader's are calling for Snyder to act on their plea. President Obama has joined them. Cronan's advice to Obama?"Let's pay a little more attention to the Middle East."True, Cronan has a fondness for the Redskins. He was one, and in his heart always will be. Cronan played for the Redskins from 1981-85 and was the special teams' captain on two of their Super Bowl teams."I never heard anything about the team being called Redskins when I played," said Cronan. "This whole thing with the trademark is designed to hit Snyder in the pocketbook."The controversy, Cronan added, "forces people to take sides."Cronan, a Hopkinton resident who played at Framingham's Marian High School and starred at Boston College, began his NFL career in 1977 as a second-round draft pick of the Seattle Seahawks and played for them before moving on to the Redskins.The Seahawks trained in Cheney, a town in Eastern Washington, not far from northern Idaho. The area was populated with Native Americans."I crossed paths with a lot of them," Cronan recalled. "They were proud of the (Washington) Redskins. The name was a term of endearment to them."The portrayal of Native Americans with regard to sports teams has been a political and societal flash point for years. The Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians play on. Stanford University's teams used to be the Indians. Now they're the Cardinal. Singular. The Natick High Redmen changed first to the Red and Blue and then to the Redhawks.North Dakota University has a long history of college hockey success. They were called the Fighting Sioux. No longer. In 2012 the state legislated that the school's name, logo, and mascot be discontinued. So now the teams just go by North Dakota. No nickname, no logo, no mascot until next year when the situation will be revisited. But the Fighting Sioux brand isn't likely to return in any incarnation.An ever-increasing sensitive society charges racism and bigotry, not to mention money-grabbing, when it sees teams using Native-American names to establish an identity."But look at the New England Patriots," Cronan said. "The Patriots during the Revolutionary War were terrorists."Cronan is the longtime color analyst for Boston College football, partnering with play-by-play man Jon Meterperel, a Weston High grad and Framingham resident.When Cronan played for the Redskins, Edward Bennett Williams, one of the country's most powerful trial lawyers, was part owner of the team. "I think he'd say this was hogwash," said Cronan.But that was America, circa the 1980s. The controversy lingers, and Daniel Snyder is on the hot seat. The controversy is "much ado about nothing," said Cronan the former Redskin whose beloved team may become formerly known as the Redskins.Lenny Megliola can be reached at lennymegs@aol.com.

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